Killing killers kills humanity
Imprisoned for life as a living warning not to commit crimes against humanity, SH would finally have served to promote human rights; executed by hanging, SH will in the end merely become yet another martyr to those lusting to kill humans and trample their rights.
The New York Times gets it right:
Editorial
The Rush to Hang Saddam Hussein
Published: December 29, 2006
Toppling Saddam Hussein did not automatically create a new and better Iraq. Executing him won’t either.
The Washington Post has yet to understand the rights at stake:
Editorial
A Death Sentence Affirmed
For those who oppose the death penalty, as we do, any execution is regrettable -- and this one, should it come to pass, will follow highly imperfect judicial proceedings and may in the short term inflame sectarian divisions. But it's hard to imagine the death penalty existing anywhere for any crime and not for Saddam Hussein [...] Should the world see his end in the coming days, the justice will be imperfect. But it will still be justice.
No, Justice would be served in worldwide abolition of death penalty: to show what human rights are all about!
And the current results of an online poll in Nouvel Observateur
Saddam Hussein condamné à la pendaison
- Normal : 31,81%
- Scandaleux : 17,91%
- Et Bush alors ? : 50,29%
The cynicism expressed is certainly warranted.
And Le Monde apparently understands, as does "Old Europe" in general, what rights and manners of justice are constitutive of democracy and a free society.
Pas grand-monde, sauf peut-être dans son fief sunnite de Tikrit, ne versera une larme sur Saddam Hussein. L'ancien dictateur a été pendu, samedi 30 décembre, après avoir été condamné à mort, le 5 novembre, pour crime contre l'humanité. [...]
George W. Bush, qui ne sait ni pourquoi maintenir ses 140 000 soldats en Irak ni comment les retirer, a salué l'exécution de Saddam Hussein comme "une étape importante sur le chemin de la démocratie". C'est une conception de la démocratie. Elle n'est pas la nôtre.
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